Snow snow go away

This weekend is the apple cup and my home will become a hostel. Or as Becky mistakenly called it, a brothel. I look forward to the full apartment though. It snowed like crazy here, as it seems to have all over the state. At one point on tuesday night all the roads out of pullman were closed, which really is quite a terrifying thought. Let me just say this, I HATE THE SNOW. It's pretty when it first falls, but thats it's only redeeming quality. I cannot walk in snow, and I live off campus, so now I'm forced to ride the bus. The snow is beginning to melt, but it seems that the more it melts the more difficult it is for me to walk in. Not to mention my apartment complex does nothing to remedy the situation. Together my roommate and I pay 740 bucks to live there, and yet they can't shovel the sidewalks or at least salt them? I've never been one to criticize any sort of janitorial or maintenance staff person, but in this case I must. All I ever see them do is drive around the complex smoking cigarettes. It takes them three weeks to respond to a work order, and now all the roads are a mess. I've seen one young man walking around shoveling the stairs in the buildings and bless his heart for doing so, but I think his older (and far less responsible) co-workers need to get their act together and actually, i don't know, WORK.

Sorry I don't update this enough, everytime I find the inspiration to write, it ends up being when I only have 5 minutes to do so, which simply isn't enough time. I'll try to update more though, it's not like I don't have enough time!

Changes

So after about a year and half a semester of taking Hospitality classes, I've come to the realization that it's just not for me. This may come as a surprise to you all considering how dead set I was on getting my HBM degree. However I finally admitted to myself the service/hospitality industry just doesn't interest me. I suppose part of it comes from taking other required business courses. In my accounting and management information systems classes I find myself so much more engaged and interested. I've found a new passion for business, but not so much in hospitality. Honestly, I don't want to work in a hotel for the rest of my life, and I don't ever want to work in a restaurant again. Now I realized that as I would have climbed the corporate ladder I would have found myself in less operational positions and more corporate ones. This is good, but I don't want to have to wait ten years for that. Also why would I want to limit myself to the hospitality sector.

As it stands, I'm looking at a finance degree with a concentration in real estate. Currently I'm just thinking perhaps work as a real estate agent for a year or two, then go to Portland State University where they have a Masters in Real Estate Development where I could have more advanced and lucrative jobs in the future. But then again I still have lots of time to figure this out. I'll keep you all posted.

So the other day I received a call from a friend of mine, who knew I qualified for work study about a job opening. As you could imagine I accepted and am now one of the desk assistants for a residence hall. It's actually the front desk for 5 different residence halls, so it can get a little hectic. Today is my first day, from 1-3 I had a shift but was working with help. Now I'm on to my 5-7 shift and I'm all by myself. It's only 11 minutes in, but only two people have walked in. It was considerably busier earlier today, but I suppose its a good thing right now. I have always wanted to have some sort of front desk job, even if only for a year. Something about it just excited me. Well I should probably get back to sitting around watching the door. I don't have much else to say. School has been going well, the walk to class continues to get easier each day, and my roommate and I still haven't killed each other!

I'll try to post more, but I feel like nothing new or monumental happens to me anymore since this is my sophomore year. Everything that happened last year was so new and blog-worthy. I'll try to keep everyone updated though! :)

I promised I would update this, and I haven't been doing the best job of doing that, my apologies. Now probably isn't the best time in the world to start writing a new update but I've found inspiration so I must. It's 7:25 AM and I'm up waiting for the best time to start walking to class. My first class of the day is Accounting which is stressful and yet strangely intriguing to me.

I could go on about my classes but it's all boring, in more exciting news, yesterday I earned about 20 cents buy purchasing an Arizona Iced Tea from our friendly campus Starbucks. How did I do this, you ask? I'll tell you. All I did was grab a can of the iced tea, and hand it to the young woman working the register. My total was $1.07 so I handed her a five dollar bill. In return she hands me four one dollar bills (already incorrect) and a whole bunch of coins, which I later discover includes over 4 quarters and totals about $1.20. Soooo, thanks to this woman's incompetence, instead of getting the $3.93 back in change that I expected, I received $5.20 and made a quick profit! And then later my friend Brenda bought me Taco Bell for driving her to Moscow. Although I did spend about $70 bucks total yesterday on Gas, a poster and a hair product.... needless to say the rest of this month will be tight, but I'm in college and that's what it's all about!

I'll talk to you guys later!

Eric

So I've been back in Pullman for a little over a week now and things have been good. Lots of stress involving classes, job hunting, and some other drama that just never seems to end. My classes, so far seem like they shouldn't be too difficult, but it's only the first day so I won't trust my initial opinion. Today I'm off to my classes that I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are Hospitality, and Management Information Systems (MIS). Should be easy enough. I may be meeting up for lunch with someone afterwords but we'll see how that pans out.

Yesterday I signed up for a Pilates class that runs from 7:00 pm-8:00 every monday and wednesday, whilst completely forgetting that I just applied to a few places where I said I would be available to work during those times. Whoopsies. I don't want to go and cancel my class, because I haven't even been hired anywhere yet, but we'll see!

I forgot to mention, yesterday I tried walking to class, which from my apartment is difficult, but possible, and done by many of my neighbors. The other option is to take the Bus which my good friend told me was like a can of sardines... that's what I call, not great. Besides my feet hurting after the walk, I realized that part of my exhaustion could be due to the fact that I wore a sweatshirt. I know, it's still summer, but it was 7:30, and freezing outside. Today I don't have class until 10:35, so when I leave here in about ten minutes, it shouldn't be so cold. Despite really not enjoying the walk, I think I am going to go ahead and do it again today, I mean it may be tough at first but I'll adjust, and hopefully loose a few pounds from doing it every day! Part of my walk includes a very steep hill, so my legs should get quite the work out!

Alright, well I think I've said enough for today, I'll update later with more of an update about my Tuesday/Thursday classes!

Helllooo? Anybody still out there?

Hey I'm not sure if people are still checking this, but I will be updating it while I'm back up at school. The blog IS titled "Eric at WSU" so I figured posting anything during the summer wouldn't make much sense. Anywho, I move up tomorrow morning into my first apartment and I couldn't be more thrilled. I've already got that jittery excited feeling I usually get on christmas morning or when I'm about to leave on a fun trip. Usually I don't get this excited until the actual day arrives but I guess I'm more excited that I thought. Tonight, falling asleep will most certainly be a challenge.

Okay well I'm going to go, I've got my last day of work ahead of me, which I'm not looking forward to, but I get paid today so that's helpful. I'll be posting pictures of my apartment when I get up there!

Just a thought. If it seems like I didn't update this blog enough during this school year, well keep in mind that this is my 66th post. I'd say I posted quite a bit. I don't feel so bad now! I don't have much to say other than I've taken three finals, and am feeling relatively confident about them all. I've got two more to go so I'm going to go study right now for them. Today is Cinco de Mayo and this is a special day for me. Let me elaborate. I'm not entirely sure if I believe in the whole "reincarnation" thing, but I do feel that if we do have past lives, then my past life was as a mexican. I have all these weird memories of living and walking around a small mexican village, and considering I've never been farther south than Florence, Oregon (or was it Dunes City, OR? It was to see Nick and Megan and Drew back in the day!) anywho, It doesn't make sense for me to have these memories. Amy claims she was a star in her past life, and well I was a Mexican. So naturally since today is the holiday of my people, I must celebrate in some fashion. But it's wednesday during finals week so I'll probably celebrate by studying and watching TV. I am getting subway with my friend Janie today, so that can be my celebration!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

So I've begun packing for the trek home and it's quite overwhelming. All I can say is, I'm glad I started today. I just pretty much packed all my clothes, which only account for probably 35% of my things. Looking at my desk, it's kind of frightening to think of how much crap I have and how little storage I have for it. I'm probably going to need to go buy a box or something because I just have too much stuff, and nothing to carry it in! How did I get it all up here? I really don't feel like I've accrued that much since moving up here, but perhaps I have.

Anywho, again I can't wait to come home this friday! My freshman year is over!

My goodness it's been ages since my last update! I forgot all about this thing! Well my year is coming to a close and I couldn't be happier. This year has been so incredibly fun, probably the best year of my life. I am so glad I chose WSU over Western. So, so glad. However, there are a number of things I won't miss. For one, I'm done living in the dorms which is really exciting. In fact it's the thing I look forward to most about this year being over. I cannot handle sharing a room with someone I really cannot. I have many stories I look forward to sharing with everyone in person, but it'd just be kind of rude to say them publicly on here. Not that my blog gets a lot of traffic, but still, I'm considerate.

This past few days have been especially stressful. It's called Dead week, I'm sure most of you know what this is: the week before finals. It's the last week of actual class, and most classes are supposed to be just reviewing for the finals, but that's never the case. Usually projects are due, presentations are to be given and a whole bunch of crap that should have happened the week before. Needless to say this week has been the busiest week of the year for me, so much to do and ... well there's plenty of time but hardly and motivation. However the worst of it is over, which would be the speech I had to give yesterday. It was a persuasive speech and it just took forever to prepare and had been weighing on me for some time now and to finally get that off my chest feels great. Today I have another presentation to give for my GenEd class which should be interesting. I'm not really too concerned about that but still I don't want to mess it up. tomorrow I have my french oral interview with my partners Kim and Shea. We had one about two months ago and it was really simple but still, it's a big part of my grade so I can't help but be a little worried about it.

Then it appears that after that oral interview, I'll be done, absolutely done. I have no quizzes, no tests, no other presentations, or anything to do for the rest of the week. All that comes next is the studying for finals which I'm not too stressed about. I never get stressed for tests, which isn't always a good thing. Sometimes I don't take things seriously enough and will under-study, but hopefully I can avoid that. Well I have to go to French now, so I'm going to leave it at that.

I'll hopefully see every body soon! I'll be home in 9 days.

The other weekend I went up to Spokane with Becky, her boyfriend/my friend Gage, and Becky's roommate Chrissy. Chrissy is from spokane, and by spokane I mean far far north spokane. Upon arriving in Spokane, we had another good 40 minutes until we reached her lovely home. She lives way out in the country which inspires me to do the same. They don't live on a farm, but they have lots of land, and a beautiful house. Anywho, I took some photos along the way so I thought why not share them with you all!


The drive up to her house was one of the most beautiful drives of my life. It was drizzling and and sunsetting, which is a beautiful phenomenon.


The photos from the car ride aren't my best, since I had to shoot through a windshield, but I tried.

This picture isn't the best, but it was the best I could do to catch this rainbow. I don't think I've ever seen the end of a rainbow, nor have I seen such a bright rainbow. The photo doesn't show how vivid it was, but you can clearly see where the rainbow ends which was really exciting.



The final stretch to her house was a dirt road.


We took a number of photos that night, but some of them are a wee bit embarrassing, so I just have a few more to share. Here's Becky, Chrissy and me just sitting on a dog bed looking wonderful. This was after the hottub, so my hair looks ridiculous.



The wrap it up, here's a great photo of Chrissy's cat, Bruce, that Gage snapped.




That's all for now folks, but I'm going to try to post more photos on this blog in the future. Now I just have to sit here and listen to my roommate's disgusting eating sounds.... I'm a terrible person.

Here's a photo of our apartment for next year! Ours is the on the top left.

Not great.

Today we're signing the lease for the apartment but are forced to do so in inclement weather. Yesterday Becky and I put in a great work-out at the gym, and were commenting on the amazing weather. Neither of us really needed jackets outside, and there wasn't a cloud to be seen.

This morning it's a different story


The picture doesn't really show the snow very well, but I can assure you it's coming down hard!

It's been like this A LOT lately. One day not only sunny, but warm and beautiful, and then the next day it's freezing and snowing. I checked the weather report, and it's not even cold enough to snow, let alone this heavily. It's around 40 degrees and getting warmer, which would explain why the snow isn't sticking, but why is it even snowing in the first place!

But Becky and I won't let this crazy weather stop us from signing the lease! I couldn't be more ecstatic!

Apartment! So on thursday, Becky and I drove over to Churchill Downs to apply for an apartment. The next day we each received a phone call saying that we had been approved, and now tomorrow she and I are going back down to the complex to sign the lease! I could not be happier to be finally moving out of student housing. I'm certain I would have become homicidal if I lived in any other dorm, but as nice as Olympia Avenue is, I am absolutely ready to get out!

Here is the floor plan of our apartment, except ours is going to be mirrored.


Tomorrow when we go to sign the lease I'll be sure to snap a photo of the outside of the building because call me crazy but I find our building to be much prettier than all the rest.

That's all for now.

Currently, I'm writing a paper and listening to some vintage Lady GaGa, and doing laundry. Can you think of a better way to start the day? I can, but the Lady GaGa is making this much easier on me. I have such a horrible problem with procrastination. I have a huge paper due tomorrow, and I'm only just now getting into it. For the past three days I've been typing down thoughts and doing lots of research, but I haven't quite written anything in the form of a paragraph until late last night. It seems I get so much more motivated to finish things like this when the deadline is near. What's my problem?

Anywho, today Becky and I are going to Dabco management to apply for an apartment, which is really exciting. The two of us decided to live together since we're good friends and well because we can't imagine who else we'd live with. It's going to be a blast next year and I just cannot wait. I may be dying for this school year to be over, but that's only because I can't wait for this fall! We were discussing all the food we'll be cooking next year in our own kitchen, and it's just put me into such a good mood. She's going off to Spokane in a year for nursing school so next year will be our only year together in an apartment, but if my good friend Amanda transfers to WSU, then she'll be moving in with me at that point. Anyway, I need to finish my paper, so I'm going to end this now. I just needed to update this.

Happy anniversary mom and dad!

I'm coming hooome!

I'm stoked to come home this friday, but I'll miss my sweet pullman! I cannot believe how close the end of the year is. I cannot be more excited. Mostly because I can't wait to move out of the dorms... again I love my building, but I'm dying to live on my own. Independence is so close I can almost taste it!

I don't have much to say except for I got my midterms back and my grades are superb so that's fantaaastic!

See you soon hopefully!

Bonjour! MY own personal housing crisis? Nearly solved. It is now completely certain that I will be living in an APARTMENT and not a house next year. The girls with whom I almost got a house, decided that they'd rather do the apartments just for ease of living. So three of them are getting a townhouse probably in Churchill Downs which is exactly where I'll be living! The reason I say nearly solved is because I still don't know if I'll be getting a one-bedroom or living with Becky, but before long we'll know!

I have my car up here and I love it so much. However, as expected I am spending money faster this way! Although, as far as shopping goes, yesterday I really tested my will power, by going into TWO stores that I like and not buying a single thing. A few months ago that seriously would have been impossible. Is my spending problem cured? Not quite, but I'm getting there!

This weekend has been lots of fun, and this past Friday was definitely one of the better nights of my college experience! Just good friends, lots of laughs and meeting some exciting new people. Also I tried Pizza Perfection (a local pizza place), and it was as if I was trying pizza for the first time. I've never loved a slice of pizza more in my life. I had to pay for it since my friend's bank account was too low to cover it, but It was worth it. Next time you find yourself in the palouse craving a pizza, forget, pizza hut, round table, papa murhpys, or even pizza pipeline, it's all about pizza perfection. Obviously you can tell I'm pretty emotional about the pizza, and I've never been a huge fan of pizza.

Friday afternoon I gave some tours of my residence hall. I was nervous at first because there were only two tourguides (myself included) and it was a big preview day for prospective students, meaning lots of people to give tours to. Fortunately the tours went great, and I even got some help from another resident on my floor, which was super helpful, especially when one of my groups (which consisted easily of about 60 people) were all jam packed onto the floor. Definitely appreciated the help! It got me excited about the possibility of being a real campus tour guide, aka a "cougar connecter" next year, when I'll actually get paid!

Well I'm done for now, I have some math homework to take care of. I had to skip the lecture in order to give tours, so hopefully the subject matter isn't too complex!

February

It's been a few weeks since the first day of my new classes and I'm really getting into the swing of things. For a while I was feeling quite overwhelmed. I'm the kind of person who doesn't get stressed when I know EXACTLY what it is I have to do, even if it's a lot. But when I'm not completely certain, or have no idea what I need to accomplish, and I know there is tons to do, then I lose my mind. This is exactly how I felt.

My GenEd, class which I was so looking forward to taking since the professor had received rave reviews on ratemyprofessor.com, turned out to be not as I had hoped. Professor Gerber is a sweetheart and she's really inspiring for a number of reasons. She is German and has spent many years living in China, and just has a lot of knowledge under her belt. However the class is tougher than I had imagined. Because of her passion for ancient world civilization she seems to believe that all of her students are just as passionate. This is quite false, in fact I really hate the subject of the class. I don't like studying things that happened so long ago because I feel we can't know for sure exactly what happened, and I don't like being certain. The work load at first seemed outrageous but I'm adjusting and finding it to be not so difficult after all. The first three weeks were kind of nerve racking for me, I wasn't sure how I'd fair in the class, it just seemed so difficult, but I'm figuring it all out and now am really on top of things.

Math which you guys may know I am retaking this semester. Last semester I took this math 201 class, which the entire time wasn't really the most difficult, it was challenging but never too hard. My professor was terrible, and I had a hard time focusing in class, and it was the class that I skipped the most. Despite having a fairly decent grasp on the subject matter, it was my worst grade after finals. I passed, but I need my GPA to be higher so I'm retaking it. This semester, I have the best math lecturer that i've ever had, but his quizzes are a bit tricky and the course load a bit rough. It's nice though when he goes over difficult concepts, and most of the people in the class don't get it (not because he's a bad lecturer but because the subject is hard), and I'm sitting there understanding every word he says. I'm really excited for the midterms because they're standardized for all math 201 classes, so I know what they're like since I took the same ones last semester. I'm ready to rock this class.

Economics, which I dropped last semester has been great so far as well. My previous econs professor seemed to take economics too seriously, in that he compared to a philosophy or psychology class. Some economists might agree with that stance, but honestly it threw me off so much. With my current professor, he's a grad student and sometimes makes mistakes, but I'm learning so much more from him. Also I've been using the study guide (which is good since I paid about 117 bucks for it), and I find myself really learning all the concepts with its help. Also we have a lot of online assignments. He gives us like three to five and they're all due on one day, and the next batch of assignments isn't due until valentines weekend, but being the good student that I am finished them all yesterday.

French is great. The professor continues to amaze me. She is so funny, so understanding and just awesome. This class also has a lot of online homework, which I'm loving. It's easier for me to get homework done online than if I have to write it out, i've found.

Public speaking is interesting. My professor is hilarious, but there are some really annoying people in there. The kinds that actually are funny, but since they keep getting laughs from the prof, they start acting like they can get away with anything. There's another guy in there who is older than the rest of the class, and he is a really nice guy, but he seems to think he's better and cooler than everyone else. He talks like he's the teaching assistant sometimes, and other times I think he just talks to hear his own voice.

I could go on for ages about my classes, but I think I've hit the basics. I really want to come home next weekend, I'm a bit stressed out from this semester and need to relax the best way I know how, with my familllyy!

Last night, Becky, Chrissy and I went to Dissmores (grocery store) and purchased the fixins for pasta, with salad and garlic bread and we prepared quite a feast. Of course we just used Prego spaghetti sauce but still, it was like the first "home-cooked" meal any of us had had in a while and it was wonderful. We cooked our meal in the first floor lounge of my building (where Becky lives, I'm on the third), and we watched Role Models which happened to be on HBO at the time.

In my GenEd class, the entire class was split up into teams of 14 people. Each team had to come up with a team leader, and being the power hungry control freak that I am, ended up being the leader. When my team was choosing the leader, no body wanted to do it, and so I lied and said "I guess if no body else will do it, I can do it", the truth is "I don't want anybody else to do it, I want to be the leader!", haha but I didn't want my love of leadership positions to be apparent.

Today my plans are fairly simple, at noon, Becky and I are going to hit up the states largest university recreation center here at WSU, and put in a good hour-long work out, because I desperately need it. I haven't worked out in over a month, so hopefully my stamina is as good as it was circa December 2009.

After our grueling work out, I'm sure I'll be heading back to Becky's room where I will begin doing my homework for the weekend. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure all of my homework this semester, has been done in Becky's dorm room. She keeps me focused, because she doesn't get distracted easily at all, so she stays focused on her work and it inspires me to do the same. I've got my math to take care of, and being the team leader for my GenEd team I have to organize the team paper that's due tomorrow. Lucky for me, the only part I'm writing is the summary. Not that I didn't want to do more, but it just turned out that way. However I still have to assemble the entire paper based on the different parts people are emailing me so this should be interesting.

My french class is amazing. For some reason I was scared of my french professor (before I met her). I guess I'm just scared of french people, I don't want them to hate my french speaking abilities or lack thereof. Lucky for me, my amazing french professor, who is a native of France, is an amazing woman. She is so funny, and so nice, and has the most beautiful accent. Despite my love for the language, I've found that the French accent isn't always a pretty one, but hers is wonderful. Every day she surprises me more and more and it's great. She is incredibly patient and understanding, and is just an amazing teacher. When mastering a language I think it's equally important to know all the slang and colloquialisms of the language as well, and she certainly has that accomplished. I never have to worry about if she'll understand what I'm saying or if I should speak more formally, because she gets it all. She speaks a lot of english too which I find really helpful because if I have a question, I don't have to worry about always putting it into perfect french (which in turn gets screwed up in translation anyway), I can ask the question and precisely as I want it, and get the best answer from her. Oh I could go on forever about how much I love her and the class (which I have about 5 friends in).

So next year, oh boy. So this past week I was just sitting in my dorm, wasting time, and I get a text from my good friend Janie that says "we want you to live with us next year" I'm flattered and yet torn. I always thought it'd be fun to live with Janie and my friends Meagan and Alisha, but they had all planned on living together in a house, and I'm more of an apartment person (at least in Pullman). The thought of living with those girls had crossed my mind, but I was pretty set on living in a one-bedroom apartment next year (which I'd love, trust me I love my privacy). So initially when she said that, my thought was "no I don't want to live in a house, they're gross here", but the more I thought about it, the more the idea started growing on me.

First off, I would save a lot of money, probably, by the end of one year, I'd save maybe over 1500-2000 bucks by not living in a one-bedroom apartment. Also, there are a few really nice homes in the area, despite the numerous dumps that also exist. The houses are all much closer to campus than any of the apartments are, plus I'd be living with some really cool girls. I know I'd be the only guy, but I think I'd manage. The problem is, even this isn't completely certain. The three girls are still on the lookout for three bedroom homes, so if they find one, then it'll just be them, which I'll be fine with. Also, Becky and I might live together, but that depends on a number of things, that I do not care to get into right now.

Back to the whole living in a house thing. I know my parents don't really want me to do the house thing because of the nightmare Amy went through in her house. I too was certain that I'd never deal with a house and just go straight to the apartments, but I'm kind of changing my mind. I know many of the houses aren't nearly as nice as the apartments, but I think it could be a lot of fun living in a house. Closer to campus, closer to nightlife, the situation is really ideal. Plus I'd be living with some people that I really like, who I know I can trust and have a good time with. So we'll see, chances are Becky and I won't live together, and the girls might find a nice three bedroom, and I'll be back to my original plan of living in a one-bedroom apartment.

I may have not a single iota of an idea as to where I'm living next year, but I do know for certain that I'll be extremely happy wherever I'm at.

I'm baaack! It's been about a month, but it feels good to be back. I have an hour break between my first and second classes so I'm just sitting here in the Compton Union Building on my laptop and waiting. Last semester I had a similar break, and I'd usually go back to my room because I'd have it to myself, but this semester it's different, and my roommate doesn't have class until noon, so I don't have the room to myself anymore.

I was getting excited to sign a lease for an apartment, but after emailing Dabco Management (the company that owns the apartments I'll be living in next year), I discovered that I can't sign a lease until march, so that's just wonderful.

I really don't have much to talk about right now since my time back here in Pullman has only just begun. I'm stoked for this semester to be back in full swing and for my social life to resume to normal. Last night was miserably boring, Becky and I just sat around and talked for hours, ate some food, watched some shows on TV, then I went to my room and slept like a baby. Again, I really have nothing of substance to talk about right now so I'll just end this little post right here and I'll post again as soon as I have something adequately entertaining to tell you.